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Even though this is considered a tall-vase arrangement, the mouth of the vase is large enough to hold a needlepoint holder.
In center-back of the holder place a black hanging vine, 1, with the tip hanging slightly to the left.
Place white-rolled stems 2 to come up from the center.
Place short black stem 3 to the right-front.
Fill in the background with scarlet flax, and add helpers as shown.
Materials used:
Black hanging vine
White rolled stems
Scarlet flax
Prayer
I never prayed sincerely for anything, but it came, at some time, somehow, in some shape.
—Adoniram Judson
Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our argument, despise our persons—but they are helpless against our prayers.
—Sidlow Baxter
The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayer-less work. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.
—Samuel Chadwick
God sets more value on prayer and communion than labor. The Heavenly Bridegroom is wooing a wife, not hiring a servant . . . Prayer brings God out of His secret place to work wonders in the earth, to pour Himself through the believer into a world of lost souls.
—A. W. Roffe
"Too busy to pray!" You might as well say "Too busy to live."
Prayer is not lost time. It is living itself. It is that without which no time is saved, but all time is saved, but no time is lost. It conserves time, making it valuable and effective.
I have so much to do (today) that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.
—Martin Luther
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An unusual Valentine arrangement.
Strip the ferns of all inside leaves, place them together at the bottom, and push them into the center of the needlepoint holder. Put in a tall cat-tail branch, 1, at a slightly diagonal angle. Bend the tips of the ferns to form a heart-shape, and wire them in that position on to the cat-tail branch. This makes 2.
Place the tallest rose, 3, as in the diagram, and add helpers A, B and C. Cover the holder with pebbles.
Materials used:
Cat-tails
Palm ferns
Red roses
Pebbles
Prayer
A young preacher had just settled in his first pastorate in Philadelphia when he was visited by one of the laymen in his Church.
The man said bluntly to him "You are not a strong preacher. In the usual order of things, you will fail here. But a little group of us has agreed to gather every Sunday morning to pray for you."
The young man saw that group of people grow to more than one thousand, praying weekly for their pastor.
The minister was J. Wilber Chapman, who became one of the greatest preachers America has ever known.
Prayer isn't so much the getting of the answer, as it is a getting hold upon the God who answers prayer.
A four-year-old was spending the night away from home. At bedtime she knelt at her hostess's knee to say her prayers, expecting the usual prompting. Finding Mrs. B. unable to help, the little girl concluded thus: "Please God, 'scuse me. I can't remember my prayers, and I'm staying with a lady who don't know any."
The heart that prays soars high on strong, glad wings, And finds repose beyond earth's rending things.
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If a basket is used for this arrangement, place the needle-point holder in a low dish inside the basket.
Spike 1 goes in the center-back of the holder. Leaf 2 is put in the left-front corner at 45°. Branch 3, in the right-front corner, comes forward at 90°.
Add helpers of spike, leaf and foliage as shown.
Materials used:
Solomon's seal
Pointed leaves
Prayer
There is one thing more pitiable, almost worse, than cold atheism; to kneel and say "Our Father," and say "I believe in God the Father Almighty," and then to go on fretting and fearing, saying "I believe in the love of God! But its stop is only in Heaven. I believe in the power of God! But it stoppeth short at the stars. I believe in the providence of God! But it is limited to the saints of Scriptures. I believe that the Lord reigneth! Only with reference to some far-off time, with which we have nothing to do."
That is more insulting to our Heavenly Father, more harmful to the world, more cheating to ourselves, than to have no God at all. We take our burdens to the Lord—but do we leave them there?
The story is told of the late General Gordon that each morning for about a half hour there would be lying outside his tent a white handkerchief. The whole camp came to know what that meant, and looked upon the little signal with the utmost respect. No foot dared pass the threshold of that "canvas tabernacle" while the handkerchief was spread there. No message, however pressing, was ever delivered. Even matters of life and death had to wait until that "white flag of prayer" was taken away. Everyone in the camp knew that God and Gordon were communing together.
Put the little white handkerchief of the "quiet hour" outside your heart's door once each day, and then draw near to God in prayer, worship, and adoration. You will find your heart warmed, and your soul reinforced for the duties of life.
"Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee; He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved."
—psalm 55: 22
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